Warrick
Brownlow (3-24-2002) - I got this DVD on the first day
of it's release, and it is great.

The
DVD sleeve is gold with blue edging and features "The Muppet Show"
logo in blue. It has Kermit coming out of the "O" like the new
25th anniversary logo. Under the logo are Gonzo, Kermit, Piggy, Rowlf,
Scooter and Fozzie bursting out of the cover.

The DVD is
a fifty-minute compilation of the funniest moments from "The Muppet
Show". It features Miss Piggy as wonder-pig, the Swedish Chef making
his chocolate moose and some great musical numbers like "Let's Go
to Rio". It is put together like a Muppet Show, only it runs for
fifty-minutes and there is no guest star.

The 50 minute
Muppet Show includes:

Opening
Titles

"Let's
Go to Rio"

Motorbike
Madness (Gonzo flying into the balcony)

Veterinarian's
Hospital (Kermit)

The Daffodils
(Piggy and Rowlf)

Pigs
in Space (Meteor Storm)

Stopping
by the Woods (Fozzie with Gonzo interrupting)

Muppet
Labs (Teleporter)

Melodrama
Casting (Piggy, Uncle Deadly and Wayne)

Swedish
Chef (Chicky in the basket)

Mahna
Mahna

Gonzo's
Cannonball Act

We Got
Each Oother (Robin and Sweetums)

Muppet
Labs (Honeydew Shrinking Pills)

Memory
Act (Fozzie and Annie Sue Pig)

Veterinarian's
Hospital (The Sinking Patient)

Muppet
Newsflash (Airmail Delivery)

Bein'
Green

Swedish
Chef (Chocolate Moose)

Muppet
Labs (Turning Gold into Cottage Cheese)

Glady's
Sandwich (Gonzo's Walnut Lima Bean Sandwich)

Wonder
Pig (Miss Piggy as Wonder Woman)

Muppet
Newsflash (Gold-finger)

Muppet
Labs (Edible Paperclips)

Pigs
in Space (End of The Universe)

Beaker's
Solo ("Feelings")

Memory
Lane (Gonzo)

End Credits
(With additional band footage)

At the end
of many of the skits, Statler and Waldorf heckle. Did you think that they
would miss this show?

It
is also interesting to see that it looks like they have made a new "Kermit
in the O" for this program. It is because the name is changed to
"The Very Best of The Muppet Show" from "The Muppet Show".
The ending credits have a lot more names in them during the closing theme
which made the ending sequence longer. This extended closing theme included
clips from the band's number in the Shirley Bassey episode.

It also has
two whole episodes of "The Muppet Show" as extras. The first
episode is the Star Wars episode and next is Elton John. Both episodes
include introductions by Brian Henson and include the UK Skits, "Three
Little Fishies" and "Any Old Iron".

Extra
Features

"Of
Muppets and Men: The Making of The Muppet Show" is also on the DVD
as an extra feature. It is a great special especially on DVD. It's really
nice to be able to see minor details like a woman wearing a Kermit shirt
in the "I Get Around" number. It shows a lot of the taping of
some of the later fifth season episodes. We get to look around in the
workshop where the Muppets are made. If you look close enough in the background
you can see posters, Muppet heads, and even a Kermit cup!

There
is also a quiz on the DVD. The questions are about Fozzie, Gonzo, Animal,
Kermit and Miss Piggy. Some of the questions are really good like, "What
was Gonzo when he first debuted on TV?" Once you answer the two questions
about each Muppet you get a prize which is a Muppetism about the character
that the questions were based on. The Muppetisms are short little commercials
originally produced for the Odyssey Channel.

The Muppetisms
on this disc are: Kermit (The Frog), Fozzie (Da Bear), Miss Piggy (The
Diva), Gonzo (The ???), and Animal (The Percussionist). The same
Muppetisms are also accessible under character profiles on the disc.

The Muppet
character conceptual drawings are great to see. There are drawings of
the Swedish Chef, Animal, Statler and Waldorf, Angus McGonagle and Beaker.
Most of the drawings you would have already seen if you have "Of
Muppets and Men", "The Works" and 'The Art of The Muppets'
books. But the Animal picture actually shows more than just Jim's drawing,
it also shows a version of Animal that Dave Goelz designed and later built
for "The Muppet Show".

The Muppet
character facts part of the disc tells us about Rowlf's debut on the Jimmy
Dean show, Gonzo starting out as a Cigar Box Frackle and how a recording
of Pigs in Space was actually taken into orbit twenty years ago. There
is also an "Access to Muppet World" extra which allows you to
go to Muppet World by clicking a link on the DVD (if you have that capability
built into your system). It would have been nice to have different surprises
for winning the quiz. Instead of the same Muppetisms being included in
both the profiles and the quiz.

Hopefully
we will see the second "The Very Best of The Muppet Show" DVD
with more of the great stuff that was included here! I give it four and
a half out of five Kermit heads!

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